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Divorce, Civil Partnerships and Finances

Only one in five separating couples take part in the compulsory Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) before pursuing divorce or related financial proceedings.

Since April 2016 this step has been compulsory but data from a Freedom of Information request to the MoJ shows that even two years on, only a fifth of separating couples undertake a MIAM. Fewer than 4,000 MIAMs were undertaken out of nearly 18,000 private law applications in the first quarter of 2016.

Sorting out Separation website

The Government’s “Sorting Out Separation” website has seen 360,000 visits since its launch in 2012 to December 2015. The statistics show that:

Nearly 266,000 unique users visited the website

There were over 359,000 total visits

Over 61,000 unique users engaged with the website

Civil partner wins appeal against estate of former partner

A woman who found out that her former civil partner who died intestate in 2013 had hidden assets worth millions of pounds during the dissolution of their civil partnership has won her appeal in the Court of Appeal seeking to set aside the original settlement.

The case will now be listed at the High Court for a direction hearing to determine next steps to set aside the settlement to enable further negotiation to take place.

Civil partnerships challenge appeal to be heard this week

Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan’s appeal against a judgment dismissing their application for judicial review of the Government’s ban on different-sex civil partnerships was heard in November 2016. The Judgment is awaited.

70,000 people have signed an online petition in support of civil partnerships being open to all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Their previous application for judicial review was dismissed earlier this year.